Fortuyn's murderer is spared a life sentence

The killer of the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was sentenced to 18 years in prison yesterday. Prosecutors had demanded a life term.

Volkert van der Graaf, 33, a vegan animal rights activist, had confessed to shooting Mr Fortuyn outside a radio station in Hilversum on 6 May, 2002, days before the general election. He was arrested minutes later the murder weapon in his pocket, gunpowder on his hands and Mr Fortuyn's blood on his trousers.

"The accused deliberately and premeditatedly robbed Pim Fortuyn of his life. After calm consideration he shot five bullets into the neck, back and skull of Fortuyn who died from his wounds," Frans Bauduin, the presiding judge, said.

The sentence reflected "the brutal manner in which the victim was killed, the damage to the democratic process and the general deterrence effect the punishment should have," he said.

The judges said it was unlikely Van der Graaf would kill again and he deserved a chance to rejoin society. The prosecution said it had not decided whether to appeal.

Mr Fortuyn's supporters in the gallery jeered and stamped their feet as the sentence was read. One of them, Patricia Houdkamp, wept. "What do you have to do to get a life sentence? The Netherlands is way too tolerant."

Van der Graaf looked relieved. With good behaviour and time served taken into account, he could be free by 2014.

List Pim Fortuyn, the party Mr Fortuyn founded, said it was shocked by the reasoning of the court. Alfons Fonte, an LPF member, called the sentence "totally inadequate". He added: "This should not be possible in a country with freedom of speech. Politicians might hesitate to speak out in future." Simon Fortuyn, the victim's brother, said he was disappointed but added: "I am not so filled with rancour that I have to see him behind bars for the rest of his life." Theo Hiddema, a lawyer for Mr Fortuyn's family, said: "The suspect was a rigid environmental tyrant who misled the court by using environmental arguments to suggest he had a warm heart."

The shooting of the maverick right winger was the first political assassination in modern Dutch history. Riding a wave of sympathy, List Pim Fortuyn was catapulted into government. Mr Fortuyn, a gay academic and columnist, gained popularity with his anti-immigrant policies. He said the Netherlands was "full" and Islam was "a backward religion".

Van der Graaf told the court at the beginning of his murder trial that he killed Mr Fortuyn because he saw him as a power-hungry threat to society who "abused democracy" by trying to make scapegoats of vulnerable social groups. He compared Mr Fortuyn to Hitler.

Psychiatrists who observed Van der Graaf before the trial found he was obsessive-compulsive but that this had no bearing on the crime, for which he could be held accountable.

The assassination provoked an outpouring of popular grief and Mr Fortuyn's party won more than 10 per cent of the vote and a place in the three-party right-wing governing coalition last year. But in-fighting in the party led to the downfall of the government and the LPF lost two-thirds of its seats in elections in January.